My Forthcoming Arranged Marriage

(5:46:50 PM) comocazyjew: oh you have to pretend to be someones husband in egypt.
(5:47:24 PM) comocazyjew: atleast on the busses and what nots.
(5:48:03 PM) snail of DEATH: what? I thought only the girls had to pretend to be married
(5:48:11 PM) snail of DEATH: who am I gonna pretend to be married to??
(5:48:45 PM) comocazyjew: well she will be pretend married to you. Tanga, a cute big boob black chick.
(5:49:01 PM) snail of DEATH: hmm pix asap
(5:50:52 PM) comocazyjew: hmm dont have any now but will get you some.
(5:52:10 PM) snail of DEATH: dammit I want to know if my wife is hot!
(5:52:13 PM) snail of DEATH: who's mark married to?
(5:52:26 PM) comocazyjew: no wone he is a Free man
(5:52:31 PM) comocazyjew: no one. dammit!
(5:52:51 PM) snail of DEATH: silly
(5:53:06 PM) snail of DEATH: you promise she's cute?
(5:55:13 PM) comocazyjew: yeah. she not ugly. and she a school teacher. has to count for soemthing.
(5:56:23 PM) snail of DEATH: hmmmm "not ugly" is not the same as cute!! ):<
(5:56:43 PM) comocazyjew: haha she is cute. let it go.
(5:56:50 PM) snail of DEATH: haha
(5:56:57 PM) snail of DEATH: (:
(5:57:52 PM) comocazyjew: her mother was pissed becouse she thought that her daughter was to be married to a bee keeper. "Dammit you can do better than a Bee Keeper!' said in a black southern sort of way.
(5:58:26 PM) snail of DEATH: O:!!
(5:58:29 PM) snail of DEATH: harumph!
(5:58:33 PM) snail of DEATH: clearly we are off to a rocky start
(5:58:33 PM) comocazyjew: haha
(5:58:34 PM) snail of DEATH: :D
(5:59:09 PM) comocazyjew: just the way you like it. No fun with out no Drama

14 of 30 - Strange Dreams

   So Friday night I had another peculiar and memorable dream.


   The first thing I remember is laying in bed saying "I love you" to the girlfriend I don't have, who proceeded to complain that I never say that anymore. So I went outside, determined to do something suitably demonstrative.

   Apparently, despite it being 2am, I rounded up some gardener / labourer types and had them build a large stone sign professing my love for this girlfriend I don't have. Then we all hung out and drank (the labourers/gardeners and I, the girlfriend strangely doesn't reappear after the beginning)

   Presently, it was suddenly the middle of the day (as is liable to occur in dreams), and I was still hanging out with a bunch of people in front of my house. It was my parents house actually and we were apparently rather rich -- the house was huge.
   This frat boy looking guy (the type who looks like he'd preface every sentence with "bro" and assume everyone loves him) arrived with an attractive but snooty looking girl, and he promptly seemed to trip through my front door, (accidentally?) propelling the door shut behind him.
   I quickly jammed my foot in the doorway to prevent it closing all the way and followed him in. I say to him "No offense, you seem like a nice guy, but I'm not about to let anyone in my house without me. ... please go back outside." He smiled like an idiot and then wandered into the kitchen.
   In the kitchen two younger siblings I don't have were eating breakfast. He walked right through though and I followed him into another room, where we encountered the BUTLER my family apparently has in this dream (he wasn't wearing a tux or a suit like the uber posh butlers on tv do though, just a collared shirt and slacks). So I inform the butler that this guy won't leave and is not welcome, and the butler immediately transforms from infinitely agreeable to quite authoritarian and ejects the frat boy bodily.

   Then I returned to the gathering outside the front door. They were now sitting at a table having a lovely meal. The girl the frat boy arrived with was still there and she was ambivalent about his fate. My friend Mark was there and he was desperately trying to signal me to rescue him from a girl who was hitting on him that he wasn't into (as if he'd ever pass up an opportunity, seriously). And I think that's about where I woke up.

...

   And then last night I drempt I jumped in a river wearing my boots to see if I could take them off in water. Turns out I could, but not before sinking to the bottom like a rock. Then I woke up and thought about what an unsafe experiment that would be (what if you find out you can't??)


Picture of the Day


   Today I finally put up pictures for the day I went to the Montserrat monastery

   And that means that am now caught up with posting the pics I'm going to post from Spain! Took 406, posted 96. You should be able to view them all as a slide show here:

14 of 30 - Beer!

   A month and a half ago Mark and I made an imperial stout (ie dark strong beer). We then placed most of it in my barrel, which I had been filled with homemade rum until immediately prior (rum is now in a Gallo wine jug). The barrel, obviously, still had rum soaked into the wood. We let the beer age in this barrel for about a month. Today we bottled it.

   Even warm and uncarbonated, the beer tasted like awesome! We mixed priming sugar with it as we bottled it, so it will ferment just enough more over the next two weeks to become carbonated. I am extremely excited about how it is going to be when we try it cold and carbonated. This is a beer we can be proud to take to a brew club gathering.


   And then Mark opened a bottle of the belgian ale he had made while he was gone. He aged this one with oak chips (theoretically giving the barrel age effect without the barrel), and had mixed in orange peels and some other things. It had fermented so hard it blew the lid off his bucket.
   This beer also tasted fantastic! Our first batch I'm not gonna lie had been kind of dubious. The second one was barely passable. After that we got pretty good. The oatmeal cream stout I'd made was downright good, but it was, after all, only following a recipe. I feel these last two beers we made though, we could win contests with!


When Things Go Wrong
   Mark reported to me that while I was gone, he was making a barleywine (a really strong beer). One Friday evening just before he went out he decided to check on it. He noticed that the fermentation lock (the valve on top that lets air out but not in, so it doesn't build up pressure but unwanted bacteria doesn't get in) had blocked up. So he pulled it out to clean it.
   As soon as he got it loose however it shot out and yeast gunk shot everywhere, covering him and the surrounding area. Unable to see because he had gunk in his eyes he had to feel his way to the kitchen sink to clean off. Once he was able to see again he could see green handprints all over the walls where he had felt his way to the kitchen. And of course now he had a fantastic mess to clean up. Good times.
   Moral of the story: make sure you're fermentation lock doesn't clog!! (and if it does, be very careful opening it?)

And more pictures of light refracted through bottles because I can never resist